Test changes somewhere other than the live site. This is the cheapest insurance available.
THE USUAL APPROACH
- cPanel > Domains > Create A New Domain and create staging.yourdomain.com with its own folder.
- For WordPress, use Softaculous > Installations and click the staging icon beside the live site. It copies files and database and rewrites URLs automatically.
- For other applications, copy the files and import a database export, then update the configuration with the new database details and site address.
KEEP IT PRIVATE
Add cPanel Directory Privacy to the staging subdomain so the public cannot reach it. Also set the application to discourage search engine indexing. A staging copy appearing in Google, competing with your live site, is a common and avoidable problem.
PUSHING CHANGES LIVE
Softaculous offers a Push to Live option. Read its warning carefully, as it overwrites the live site including content added since the copy was made.
For anything complex, it is often safer to reapply the changes by hand on the live site than to overwrite it wholesale.
HOUSEKEEPING
Staging copies consume disk space and inodes, and an unmaintained one becomes an unpatched attack surface. Delete it when finished.
